At short notice we did a lure fishing for bass trip out of Lymington in Hampshire. It was an eight hour trip and the tides and weather all looked in our favour.

We started drifting the incoming tide around the Needles, south of the Isle of Wight, offshore to some sand banks and then off to Christchurch. Burnt lots of fuel, but we just ccouldn't find the bass. We even tried all the bass lures we had but nothing produced. With the prospect of this being the first boat trip blank ever we decided to switch to something easier. We managed about 60 Pollack, 8 wrasse and some mackerel on an underwater pinnacle, but still no bass.

Heading back to Lymington we decided to fish the last hour of the ebbing tide over a sandbank. Spirits had been lifted somewhat by catching the Pollack, but no one was happy as we knew we wouldn't catch bass today.

Well it’s not over until the fat bass sings. The fatty above took a 60g Fiiish in some calm water just before a rig and then for the next 30 minutes we saved the day. The picture doesn't do this fat bass justice. It was built more like a wrasse than a bass.

Then bass bass started to hit and the day was saved.